


fallen down and gotten up

by herax



Category: Star Wars: Jedi: Fallen Order (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Hurt Cal Kestis, Hurt/Comfort, Minor Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-05
Updated: 2020-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:26:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23029291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/herax/pseuds/herax
Summary: Cal is in bad shape after his fight with Oggdo Bogdo. BD-1 does his best to help.
Relationships: BD-1 & Cal Kestis
Comments: 26
Kudos: 179





	fallen down and gotten up

**Author's Note:**

> I love BD-1. I do not love that extremely cursed Bogano frog monster.
> 
> No warnings for this one since it’s as close to fluffy hurt/comfort as I can manage.

“Stim, BD!”

Narrowly avoiding being flattened as the creature leaps across the cave, Cal holds a hand up for the stim but BD-1 can only offer a panicked whistle in response.

“Oh.” BD-1 hears Cal gulp, sees the way he holds his injured left arm across his chest as he raises the lightsaber with his right. “No more stims. That’s fine. We’ve nearly got him.”

BD-1 lets out a dubious whirr. He isn’t primarily a combat droid, but he would categorise Cal’s injuries as _major_ moving towards _severe_ while his estimations of the Oggdo Bogdo’s capacity for mercy produces a reading of _[subject not found]_.

From his perch on Cal’s back, he watches as the Oggdo Bogdo turns, its heavy claws slapping against the mud. It rears back, ready to launch out with its tongue again, but Cal dodges away before BD-1 even has time to give him a warning. His feet slip in the dirt and he winces when his shoulder collides with the wall, adding yet more bruises to his list of injuries.

Cal’s lightsaber glances off the Oggdo Bogdo’s thick hide but BD-1 tilts his head at the sudden sizzle when the weapon catches one of the three green eyes in the middle of the creature’s head. 

It rears back, sharp teeth bared in fury, and while BD-1’s recommended strategy would include taking the opportunity to retreat, Cal lunges forward instead, driving the lightsaber into the thinner skin below the creature’s gnashing maw. 

The monster thrashes, limbs flailing as it lets out a wounded roar, and it catches Cal across the chest with its dying spasm. Cal goes tumbling to the ground, forcing BD-1 to leap off his back to avoid being crushed, and BD-1 looks up at the giant beast as it finally collapses in defeat, green-black liquid oozing from its corpse to mingle with the dirty water around them.

Tilting his head, BD-1 hops over to the creature and gives it a tentative poke with his foot. It doesn’t respond, or show any other lingering signs of life, and BD-1 gives a quiet beep of relief before looking back over to Cal in triumph.

“Bee-boop!”

Cal doesn’t move, slumped face down in the mud, and BD-1’s system makes the switch instanteously.

_End ‘triumph’. Initiate ‘concern’._

He beeps again, nervously, and skitters across the ground to reach Cal’s side. There’s blood covering Cal’s face from a jagged cut above his eyebrow and his jaw is starting to bruise from where the beast smacked him into the wall. Unhappy about this discovery, BD-1 makes a loud, warning noise in Cal’s ear, as close to an alarm as he can mimic, but his concern only increases when Cal doesn’t respond. 

Flitting to his other side, BD-1 knocks his head against Cal’s shoulder and waits.

Cal doesn’t stir and BD-1 beeps in frustration then tries again, pushing with all his might to try to at least turn Cal’s body over to check if he’s breathing. His processor flashes up with a warning for excess physical stress but BD-1 quickly updates his programming to make the notification vanish.

_Input priority: ‘Cal Kestis safety’  
Reduce priority: ‘BD-1 overexertion’_

Air escapes Cal’s lungs when BD-1 manages to push him onto his side, and BD-1 scans his face carefully. He’s still alive, although not conscious, and BD-1 hops from foot to foot as he tries to decide what to do next. 

People are difficult. It’s easy for BD-1 to look at a droid, pull up its specifications and its operating procedures, and learn everything about what it’s designed to do, but people are much more confusing. He knows Cal’s name but there’s no manual to accompany that designation, and so BD-1 has started to fill in the gaps himself based on their brief time together.

He’s already sorted Cal into a number of categories — _human, Jedi, young, brave_ — but as Cal lies there in the dirt, bleeding and motionless, a new designation is added before BD-1 can even really process it.

_Important._

Determination fills him, and he looks around the cave for anything that could threaten Cal while he goes to retrieve help. There are a couple of splox loitering by the entrance and BD-1 sets his eye to red to make himself look as menacing as possible as he approaches them with a warning blare.

The splox look at each other, undeterred, and BD-1 temporarily re-routes six circuits in his legs to produce an intimidating crackle of electricity as he moves forward.

The splox squeak and flee, skittering off the side of the chasm, and BD-1 does a proud little bounce before glancing back at Cal, kind of disappointed that his new companion wasn’t awake to witness him being big and scary. 

Cal doesn’t respond, looking even paler with each passing second, and BD-1 files his disappointment away.

_First: ‘Help Cal Kestis’  
Second: ‘Impress Cal Kestis with scariness’_

With a plan now in place, he takes one last look back at Cal before he scuttles out into the Bogano sunlight and begins the journey back to Cal’s ship.

He’s spent enough time here and learned enough shortcuts that it doesn’t take him long, especially now that he’s not being accompanied by a human with a fondness for wandering off, despite BD-1’s extremely clear and helpful instructions. However, as he dodges a pair of bog rats that appear out of nowhere, he finds himself missing the view from Cal’s shoulders instead of down here at teeth-level for most creatures.

Cal’s ship is an S-161 “Stinger” XL, covered in scratched blue and silver paint with old yellow stripes on the front. It isn’t the first ship BD-1 would have recommended for heavy space travel and probable combat but he decides that any ship is better than no ship, and he bounds up the gangway in search of aid.

Once inside, he identifies a human female listening to a communications device and a latero male eating something lumpy and purple. 

He hesitates, looking between the two of them, but squeaks in surprise when the male yells, “Hey, what the hell are you doing on my ship?”

Deciding his odds with getting the female to assist are better, BD-1 scampers away from the male and his four flailing arms, and leaps up on top of the desk to make sure the female can see him.

“What the-”

BD-1 doesn’t let her finish the question as he launches into a detailed explanation of what’s happened and why he needs her help. It comes out as a flurry of urgent beeps of varying pitch and he watches the human’s eyes widen as realization settles in.

“A bogdo?” she asks. “You sure it wasn’t just a regular oggdo?”

BD-1 shakes his head firmly and indicates that the creature that Cal fought was very very big.

“How badly injured is he?” she asks, sounding worried. “Will a stim be enough or do we need transport?”

Not confident in his ability to carry half of a stretcher, BD-1 opts for just the stim, and as the woman stands up to retrieve her medical kit and boots, he whirrs with impatience and upgrades Cal’s status again.

_Very important._

“Greez, stay with the ship,” the woman says to the latero, who has folded both sets of arms and is now glowering at BD-1.

BD-1 glowers back.

“Cal’s in trouble,” the woman continues. “Hopefully nothing a stim can’t fix but the droid can’t take care of him on his own.”

“As long as I don’t have to go out there,” Greez says, peering out of the ship with a grimace. “All that grass. Eugh. Who knows what could be hiding in it?” 

BD-1 walks down the ramp and bounces impatiently at the end of it as he hears Greez ask, quieter this time, “Really, Cere? Is this your last big hope for the Jedi? Some kid who just got beat up by a frog?”

BD-1 storms back up the ramp with a tirade of angry beeps, and Greez holds his hands up in feigned surrender.

“Sorry, some kid who got beat up by a really big, angry frog,” he adds. His voice is thick with sarcasm and if BD-1 didn’t have other priorities, he thinks he would like to maybe fight Greez.

“For all I know, it’s his first time off-world since the purge,” Cere says, following BD-1 back down to the grass. “Cut him some slack. Once we get him back to the ship, I’ll talk to him about taking unnecessary risks.”

Greez grumbles something that BD-1 opts not to listen to. Cere at least seems to be in favor of helping Cal and so BD-1 trots ahead of her, guiding her down the pathways and across the pipes until they’re standing by one of the holes above the cave. The Oggdo Bogdo’s corpse is below them, slimy and bloated, and beside it, Cal is still passed out in the mud, bruised and bloodied.

“How do we get-”

BD-1 leaps into the hole with a chirp, landing with a splash in the shallow water.

“-down,” Cere finishes with a sigh. “I’m getting too old for this.”

BD-1 runs back over to check on Cal as Cere lowers herself down, and is pleased to see his condition hasn’t deteriorated too much further. He’s still too pale, with deep scratches across his neck and chest from the creature’s final flailing strike, and BD-1 beeps to remind Cere about the stim that she needs to administer.

“I’m on it, I’m on it,” she says, smiling. “Pushy little thing, aren’t you?”

BD-1 isn’t sure whether that’s a compliment or not but he hovers anxiously over Cal’s body as Cere crouches down beside him and injects the stim. 

Cal stirs, some of the color returning to his cheeks in seconds, but he doesn’t open his eyes as he buries his face in his arm and mumbles, “Gimme five more minutes, man.”

BD-1 trills loudly in his ear, and flits out of the way of Cal’s clumsy swipe.

“C’mon, Prauf,” Cal says sleepily. “A couple more minutes won’t kill me.”

Out of options, BD-1 takes a different approach and headbutts Cal in the face.

He’s careful where he aims his faceplate to minimise any serious damage. It bonks against Cal’s nose and BD-1 chirps happily when Cal opens his eyes in confusion. “What-”

Delighted, BD-1 bumps his head against Cal’s shoulder and calls back a thank you to Cere as Cal pushes himself to a sitting position. He looks in rough shape, covered with blood, mud and bruises in equal measure, but he frowns when he sees that he has company.

“Cere? How did you get here?”

Cere’s smile is somewhere between amused and chiding. “Your new friend came to find me.”

BD-1 beeps proudly when Cal looks down at him and he trills in satisfaction when Cal gives him a pat. “You did that, BD-1?”

BD-1 nods, pleased to have achieved his goals, and Cere continues, “Said you got in a fight and ran out of stims. He couldn’t wake you up so he came to find me.”

“Yeah…” Cal winces as he puts a hand to the lump on his head and looks over at the corpse behind him. “That last guy was tougher than I was expecting.” He tries for a grin. “Got him in the end though, right?”

Cere makes an unconvinced noise. “How about next time you only take on a fight if you think you’ll still be standing afterwards?” She reaches out with a cloth to dab at some of the blood trickling from Cal’s nose. “There’s no shame in backing out if things get too much. Live to fight another day, remember?”

Cal’s shoulders sag and BD-1 makes a sympathetic beep.

“I know,” Cal says. “I was just so close and I thought-” He sighs. “I’m sorry. And sorry to you too, buddy.” 

That part is accompanied by another pat to BD-1’s head and BD-1 looks up in pleased surprise. “Sorry if I scared you.”

BD-1 hops up, patting Cal on the shoulder with his foot by way of accepting his apology, and then backs out of the way as Cere helps Cal to his feet.

The trip back to the ship is slow and painful — one stim can only do so much, after all. Once safely back inside, BD-1 decides to leave Greez and Cere to squabble amongst themselves about whether this was a bad plan and instead focuses on herding Cal down the hallway towards what BD-1 assumes is his bed.

Cal tugs off his muddy clothes, leaving them in a pile by his doorway before collapsing into bed with a groan. 

BD-1 scans him as best he can, reviewing the cuts which are still bleeding sluggishly and trying to determine which bruises will turn purple by morning, but he doesn’t try to stop him when Cal tugs the blanket over himself.

“Thanks, buddy,” Cal murmurs as BD-1 climbs up to sit on his chest. “I don’t know what I would’ve done without you back there.”

He would almost definitely have died but Cal just smiles when BD-1 informs him of this fact.

“Guess I’m lucky I’ve got you watching my back then, huh?” He pats BD-1 absently on the head, barely able to keep his eyes open. “Don’t worry. I’ll be more careful next time.”

Cal’s breath evens out, his chest rising and falling beneath the sensors on BD-1’s feet, but he’s asleep before BD-1 can estimate the likelihood of him actually being more careful in future. 

Glad to see him safe and alive, BD-1 ponders for a moment before settling down atop Cal’s chest, slowly lulled into standby by the rhythm of his breathing.

His system welcomes the rest after the day’s exertions and as he readies himself for shutdown, BD-1 reviews his Cal-categorisation logs one more time.

_Warm. Orange. Jedi. Friend._


End file.
